The present invention is a positive cobalt electrode for alkaline storage batteries, and a process for producing the same.
In alkaline storage batteries, particularly those used as the principal drive batteries in electrical vehicle drives, cobalt electrodes are commonly used as the negative electrodes. Nickel electrodes, however, rather than cobalt electrodes, are normally used as the positive battery electrodes. The methods of forming a nickel electrode for use in a battery, however, are usually quite time consuming, energy consuming and costly. According to one such method, a porous supporting grid formed of a conductor material is repeatedly impregnated with a solution containing nickel salts and a small quantity of cobalt salt, followed by immersion in an alkaline medium for precipitating the hydroxides. In addition, the ampere-hour capacities of positive nickel electrodes formed according to these heretofore known methods tend to be relatively low.